It is the adaptation of the manga by Watsuki Nobuhiro, directed by Ôtomo Keishi for the big screen. As I said earlier, I tend to be afraid of manga adaptation in movies. One evening, I felt very masochistic and started to look at this one.

…

…

I was very surprised.

I won’t say that this movie is the best movie ever, but it is not half as bad as I was expecting it to be. The director chose to emphasize Saito Hajime’s character, who is less of an asshole/strong-witted/amoral but still touching character than in the original book. They managed to keep the manga-ish aspect (like it or not, it was nevertheless a real challenge). There are a lot of incredible jumps, impressive battles and flash forwards, but in the end it is quite funny to see. I really like how they treated the heat of the backgrounds on-screen.

There are some differences with the plot (where IS Aoshi Shinomori, for example?!) and some questionable choices of actors. But the movie is supposed to have a sequel covering the second arch of the manga series, due to its huge success (it was distributed in the world by Warner Bros, which means a lot). I won’t say that this movie is a must-see, but you can still spend a good time looking at it, even if you are a novice in the Kenshin series.